Landlord being taken to court for house repo - my rights?

[Landlord]

Hello,

We opened a letter recently addressed to "The Occupier" to find a court summonds for our landlord from the mortgage company seeking a reposession order on the house we're currently renting. The landlord has said that he welcomes the court date as he's been over-charged for ages and can't ever get through to the mortgage company

Anway;

The court date is this month (I can't remember exactly when). Now - our contract has the normal reciprocal notice clause etc. but that doesn't come in to effect until June. I wondered whether this resposession process has any affect on our contract. Are we able to serve notice "early" (before 6 months) as we'd quite like to get out before any hassle starts.

I understand that if the landlord hasn't told the lender that he is sub-letting then the reposessing lender doesn't have to honour any of our contract should they win the order.

Is there any part of the whereby we can look after ourselves over and above the clauses in the contract.

No - I don't want to shaft the Landlord but clearly he's been not paying his mortgage all the time we've been paying him rent so my sympathy for him is limited.

Cheers!
Phil.

Edit to clarify: The Landlord in the title is of the residential type and not the boozy type (i.e. me).

Edited by Landlord on Wednesday 6th May 09:23

[Andy Zarse]

No idea on your legal rights and I have the greatest sympathy for your plight. I can't imagine your alone with this problem, what with all the other amateur BTL idiots up to their arses in debt.

[fatboy b]

Sit tight, and then offer to buy the house after repo at a knock-down price.

[Landlord]

fatboy b said:

Sit tight, and then offer to buy the house after repo at a knock-down price.

Not really an option financially (all my irons are in another fire) plus I really don't want the house anyway (it was/is a means-to-an-end rental place).

[davidjpowell]

If you can look to move. I would not imagine that your landlord stands much of a chance of winning the battle of being overcharged. If the lender does goes posession you will likely be given minimum notice. It might be stabbing to your landlord but I think I would also contact the lender so that they know you exist, otherwise you could get home at some point to find the locks have been changed.

[Andy_GSA]

Typically the mortgage company will get an order for possession in 28 days, that means that the earliest they can seek to enforce possession is 28 days after the court hearing, add another couple of weeks minimum (and often longer) for a bailiff's warrant to be issued and you're looking at late June to early July before you'll have to be out at the earliest.

You've a right to be at the possession hearing to find out what order is made and I'd recommend that you go so at least you aren't left in the dark.

Technically the mortgage company could put a receiver in to take your rent and maintain the tenancy, with them becoming your landlord but that's relatively uncommon.

Otherwise start looking for somewhere else to live. With regards to notice etc I can't see how a landlord could hold you to paying rent for a property you're no longer allowed to live in (e.g. after the possession order comes into effect) which is why it's worth attending the hearing to find out how long you've got.

Edited by Andy_GSA on Wednesday 6th May 09:51

[Deva Link]

fatboy b said:

Sit tight, and then offer to buy the house after repo at a knock-down price.

Well judging by what was shown on WatchDog the other night, one thing he won't be doing is sitting tight. WatchDog showed a student who was woken up and was out on the street with what she could carry 15mins after the Bailiffs knoocked on the door. Her and her friends (well, their parents probably) are £3-4K out of pocket.

I'd never really thought about this before - seeing as tenants apparently have so much legal protection. This seems to drive a coach and horses through all the protection that tenants have.

[Landlord]

Thanks so far, every one.

With particular reference to:

Andy_GSA said:

Otherwise start looking for somewhere else to live. With regards to notice etc I can't see how a landlord could hold you to paying rent for a property you're no longer allowed to live in (e.g. after the possession order comes into effect) which is why it's worth attending the hearing to find out how long you've got.

We've found somewhere else and would like to be in there ASAP - our question, therefore, is can we terminate the contract early due to "pending" reposession? Is there any precident where this might be applicable? I suspect I know the answer, though.

[Medic-one]

Only recently i was in exactly the same situation.

Lived in my appartment (which i found through a well known high street estate agent) for over 2 years, never missed a single rent payment but started receiving a couple of those letters and opened them and they said i owed "my" mortgage company over 3K in mortage arrears and they were taking "me" to court.

So i got back to my estate agent but there wasn't much i could do. As long as the property isn't completely paid for it's still owned by the mortgage company, so if mortgage payments stop they will just reclaim the property and don't care if it's sublented or not.

The estate agent claimed they were in contact with the mortage owner almost daily and he was trying to sort it out but nothing happened and i lost trust in both of them in the end.

I stayed there for another month whilst looking for a new place, didn't pay rent for that last month as i was affraid i wouldn't get my deposit (1 month rent) back and then just vacated the property and moved into my new one.

I did keep my copy of the mailbox key so in the couple months after i moved out (and the property was still empty) i could still collect the mail which wasn't diverted to my new adress yet and was able to read the outcome of the whole mortgage arrears problem as well.

I got the first letters by the end of august stating the mortgage company started a court process to claim the property back, i moved out in september, and a lot of letters later the mortgage company won the court case and reclaimed the property in november.

So if i was you i'd kick your landlord up the butt and make him pay otherwise you might lose your house since the mortage company won't give a damn if it's rented out or not.

[Andy_GSA]

Landlord said:

Thanks so far, every one.

With particular reference to:

Andy_GSA said:

Otherwise start looking for somewhere else to live. With regards to notice etc I can't see how a landlord could hold you to paying rent for a property you're no longer allowed to live in (e.g. after the possession order comes into effect) which is why it's worth attending the hearing to find out how long you've got.

We've found somewhere else and would like to be in there ASAP - our question, therefore, is can we terminate the contract early due to "pending" reposession? Is there any precident where this might be applicable? I suspect I know the answer, though.

Is there anything in the lease about this sort of situation (I doubt it but it's worth a look)? Speak to your landlord, see if he'll let you go early. One issue is that although the lender has applied for a possession order there's no guarantee that the court will make an outright order or any order at all, depending what the landlord says at the hearing (if he bothers to attend). Depending on his financial circumstances he may decide that retaining the property might be a better option, despite what he says to you.

If you do a runner I suspect the landlord could hold you liable for rent to the minimum of the assured period / notice period / date of possession (whichever comes sooner) so that's a risk you'd take and there's also the issue of any deposit that the landlord may hold.

[Landlord]

Andy_GSA said:

Is there anything in the lease about this sort of situation (I doubt it but it's worth a look)? Speak to your landlord, see if he'll let you go early. One issue is that although the lender has applied for a possession order there's no guarantee that the court will make an outright order or any order at all, depending what the landlord says at the hearing (if he bothers to attend). Depending on his financial circumstances he may decide that retaining the property might be a better option, despite what he says to you.

If you do a runner I suspect the landlord could hold you liable for rent to the minimum of the assured period / notice period / date of possession (whichever comes sooner) so that's a risk you'd take and there's also the issue of any deposit that the landlord may hold.

Thank you. I haven't checked the lease yet but will do.

I don't really want to "do a runner" as it's not in my nature but similarly, I don't want to lose an ideal house (that we've found) for being "nice". It may come down to just sucking-it-up and paying 2 lots of rent to cover the notice period.

WRT the deposit - it's held in trust so can/will only be claimed by the legal owner (us in the event of proper conduct, the landlord in the event of improper conduct).

I think I'll check the lease first and then, if nothing, speak with the agents (they're very good) about letting us go early.

[Daphne]

Andy_GSA said:

Technically the mortgage company could put a receiver in to take your rent and maintain the tenancy, with them becoming your landlord but that's relatively uncommon.

We got a letter from our landlord's mortgage company a couple of months ago to this effect. We haven't heard anything since, but we'll be moving at the end of our contract in July because it just seems too uncertain.

[Andy_GSA]

Landlord said:

Andy_GSA said:

Is there anything in the lease about this sort of situation (I doubt it but it's worth a look)? Speak to your landlord, see if he'll let you go early. One issue is that although the lender has applied for a possession order there's no guarantee that the court will make an outright order or any order at all, depending what the landlord says at the hearing (if he bothers to attend). Depending on his financial circumstances he may decide that retaining the property might be a better option, despite what he says to you.

If you do a runner I suspect the landlord could hold you liable for rent to the minimum of the assured period / notice period / date of possession (whichever comes sooner) so that's a risk you'd take and there's also the issue of any deposit that the landlord may hold.

Thank you. I haven't checked the lease yet but will do.

I don't really want to "do a runner" as it's not in my nature but similarly, I don't want to lose an ideal house (that we've found) for being "nice". It may come down to just sucking-it-up and paying 2 lots of rent to cover the notice period.

WRT the deposit - it's held in trust so can/will only be claimed by the legal owner (us in the event of proper conduct, the landlord in the event of improper conduct).

I think I'll check the lease first and then, if nothing, speak with the agents (they're very good) about letting us go early.

My comment about the deposit was that if you leave 'early' then the landlord can hold on to it in lieu of some of the rent due. When you speak to the agent you may find that the agent doesn't know anything about the proceedings! Good luck!

[Andy_GSA]

Daphne said:

Andy_GSA said:

Technically the mortgage company could put a receiver in to take your rent and maintain the tenancy, with them becoming your landlord but that's relatively uncommon.

We got a letter from our landlord's mortgage company a couple of months ago to this effect. We haven't heard anything since, but we'll be moving at the end of our contract in July because it just seems too uncertain.

Does your landlord use a managing agent? If so it might be that they're paying the receiver on your behalf. Alternatively everything is just taking a long time!